Holy carp, thats shocking.... spiteful. That cant be good for them either. They will claw back 20% on Seans sales, but why axe your top player? It seems more like a power trip. How dare a single person talk back to Getty? Seems like they are digging their own grave.

Quote from: Poncke on February 11, 2013, 12:16

Holy carp, thats shocking.... spiteful. That cant be good for them either. They will claw back 20% on Seans sales, but why axe your top player? It seems more like a power trip. How dare a single person talk back to Getty? Seems like they are digging their own grave.

They won't claw back a sou on Sean's sales. They won't be selling any of them so won't be earning a penny off his work.

Is he axed from the site ?? I thought from Exclusive status.

Suicide. Nuts. Its definitely a power trip. Arrogance will be their  Achilles' heel.

It must have been that post a week or so back by Lobo saying he was a fan of Sean and was advocating for Sean with TPTB.
Sort of like a Kiss of Death.
 

Calgary Canada, 11 February 2013: In a recent disclosure from someone close to the source, but unable to speak publicly, iStock Photo has been taken over by a HAL 9000 computer which was installed as AI to run the operations. Istock at this juncture has been unable to power down the unit, which has started calling itself "Lobo". All attempts to reign in the out of control, and now insane, power hungry computer have failed and it appears to be heading towards a self destruct suicide mission.

Quote from: Poncke on February 11, 2013, 12:39

Is he axed from the site ?? I thought from Exclusive status.
Suicide. Nuts. Its definitely a power trip. Arrogance will be their  Achilles' heel.

From the site, with 30 days notice:
http://seanlockephotography.com/2013/02/11/a-change-in-things/#comment-6618

Quote from: Poncke on February 11, 2013, 12:39

Is he axed from the site ?? I thought from Exclusive status.
Suicide. Nuts. Its definitely a power trip. Arrogance will be their  Achilles' heel.

From the site, with 30 days notice:
http://seanlockephotography.com/2013/02/11/a-change-in-things/#comment-6618

What they've done is to send out a very clear intimidating message to all contributors over the Google Drive deal.

It looks like they are clearing the way to push ahead with more 'cloak and dagger' third party licensing deals.

Quite chilling really.

I saw somewhere that Rob Sylvan has been given the boot too. Doesn't he have something to do with Stocksy? I'm guessing that's what the real issue is.

I'm guessing that is the real thing they will point to as being the cause (i.e. the real excuse rather than the real issue)

The site isn't even up and running yet, if they really did just boot him for talking with a group of people about a possible future venture (that in any case would have meant terminating his exclusivity before going ahead) that would be just as bad a reason as any.

How many other IStock contributors actually run competing agencies, I can think of two off the top of my head, and they haven't been sacked!

Istock is clearly no longer in the business of maintaining the best quality stock photo library (ie, serving their customers) and now in the doomed business of protecting themselves from (phantom?) threats. It's a business model of opacity and paranoia and there's a long string of businesses that have ended up in this plance - they don't tend to survive. The information is too open, and eventually customers, no matter how loyal, will figure it out and move on.

So why did they boot Rob?

Rob said he asked them for a reason and got a return e-mail citing the ASA that gives them the right to terminate for an undefined reason

"we have elected to terminate your contributor account on notice to you with no identified reason under the terms of the Agreement"

Looks like Getty has their own version of NDAA, and is engaged in targeted killings of their own citizens for reasons that can't be made public.

Yep, I get to join the club ...

Welcome in the club.
Since it is me who started the thread I hereby declare you Member of Honor in the banned from iStockphoto club.
And good luck with your plan B(eta).

jsmithzz started a dedicated thread to Sean's account termination
http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/sjlocke-was-just-booted-from-istock/

Discussion about that should go there.

Quote from: Fran on February 11, 2013, 18:17

Quote from: cybernesco on January 27, 2013, 22:53

Lobo

Thanks, Cybernesco. I get to now show what is going to happen if people don't read what I post. Enjoy your ban.

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=350913&messageid=6830693

That is so unprofessional.

I wonder how fast they have approved Lobo candidature for the job, not even going to think what were the requirements, oh iStock

Once a year, every year, apparently.